A jury has finally begun hearing evidence in a trial involving the murder of Juthlande Pierre, a 42-year-old woman who was killed more than two decades ago in the West Island.

Dieuseul Jean, 56, is alleged to have killed Pierre, his girlfriend, on Dec. 25, 1995, and is charged with second-degree murder. As prosecutor Jacques Dagenais explained in his opening statement to the jury at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday, it took 22 years to bring the accused to trial because he was living in hiding, under a different identity, for years in the U.S.

Dagenais said Jean’s true identity was discovered in 2013, after he applied for a driver’s licence in New Jersey and was required to supply a fingerprint. Jean had been the subject of an Interpol warrant for two decades because the Montreal police knew he had travelled to New Jersey soon after Pierre was killed inside her home on 8th Ave. in Roxboro. The fingerprint provided a match to one the Montreal police supplied to Interpol. He was arrested and was returned to Canada on April 17, 2014.

The day after Pierre is believed to have been killed, Jean left his car with a cousin in Montreal and said he would be back in a day to pick it up.

“He never returned to get it back,” Dagenais said.

On Dec. 28, 1995, Jean made a collect call from New Jersey to the same cousin, but she refused to accept it. Following that call, Jean dropped off the map for years, as far as the Montreal police were concerned. Investigators soon learned he had purchased a one-way ticket to his destination in the U.S.

The victim’s friends grew concerned over having not heard from Pierre for days and began to make inquiries. Three weeks after Pierre was killed, the owner of the house where she resided entered the premises and noticed that a large section of carpet had been cut up. The owner also noticed blood stains on the floor where the section of the carpet used to be and contacted the police.

“From there (the investigation) snowballed,” Dagenais said.

When police arrived, they discovered Pierre’s body in the basement of the home wrapped in carpet beneath a pile of items.

“It’s an old case — several (witnesses) are now deceased,” Dagenais told the seven women and five men on the jury.

The first witness called to testify on Tuesday was François Julien, a crime-scene biologist who examined the home in Roxboro nearly 22 years ago and has since retired from his job.

Dagenais said an autopsy done on Pierre’s body revealed several knife wounds, but the cause of death was determined to be by strangulation

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